Organized by country, it gives an overview of the political and constitutional background, the sources of law, the courts of law, court procedure, and the legal profession within each country, as well as other helpful information.Īnother excellent resources for looking up information on the legal system in a particular country are the Foreign Law Guide and GlobaLex. This multi-volume looseleaf set is available in print (K48. To learn more about a specific country's legal system, try looking at the Modern Legal Systems Cyclopedia. There, you will find an alphabetical index of nations with the corresponding legal system. Using the Table of Contents on the lefthand side, select Legal Systems Classification. The quickest way to figure out what sort of legal system is in place in the nation you're researching is to visit the University of Ottawa's JuriGlobe: World Legal Systems. When you begin your research, you may not know what sort of legal system the nation you're researching has. Mixed legal systems refer to legal systems where two or more of the above legal systems work together. Many Islamic nations have legal systems based in whole or in part on the Quran. Religious legal systems are systems where the law emanates from texts or traditions within a given religious tradition. Oftentimes, customary law practices can be found in mixed legal system jurisdictions, where they've combined with civil or common law. As such, customary law research depends greatly on the use of secondary sources. The laws of customary legal systems are usually unwritten and are often dispensed by elders, passed down through generations. The legal system in the United States is a common law system (with the exception of Louisiana, which has a mix of civil and common law).Ĭustomary law systems are based on patterns of behavior (or customs) that have come to be accepted as legal requirements or rules of conduct within a particular country. Common law systems are adversarial, rather than investigatory, with the judge moderating between two opposing parties. France and Germany are two examples of countries with a civil law system.Ĭommon law systems, while they often have statutes, rely more on precedent, judicial decisions that have already been made. Most importantly, case law is a secondary source in these jurisdictions. Nations with civil law systems have comprehensive, frequently updated legal codes. Civil systems vary widely, both in procedure and substantive law, so conducting research on a particular nation's civil law system should include looking at that nation's specific system of law, but they do have some trademark characteristics. There are generally considered to be five legal systems in the world today: civil law, common law, customary law, religious law, and mixed legal systems.Ĭivil law systems have their origin in the Roman legal tradition.